Hayden's Birthday

Wow!  I must say the past week has been CRAZY busy! I have had SOOO much that I have wanted to write about! I have wanted to tell you all about Hayden's Birthday. I have wanted to share information about his hope bracelets. I have wanted to inform you of some awesome gifts and cards that he received. I have also wanted to inform you of our seizure increase.

I love using my blog as a journal from the past year or so. I have decided to break his birthday party into 3 sections so that I will be able to smile to precious memories in our future.

1. Planning/Decorating/ Meaning

2. Gifts/ Icing Smiles

3. Caring Loved Ones

On July 18, 2011, our life was changed forever. We were in a hospital room hearing that our precious 6 week old would live a critical life. I remember Dr. Davis informing us that our child had white matter damage. I remember my father-in-law being there only because he could not find a rental car in Jackson. (God's way of making sure he would be here with us to hear this devastating news. ) I remember my best friend Whitney never leaving my side. I remember my mom and mother in law making sure we ate. I remember crying and hitting the floor begging and screaming that my life was over. In September, I heard that my child would never walk or talk. I remember hearing that he would live a short life. Really???? How much can a young couple handle? How much pain can a 3 month old endure? How many needles and IVs? In January, I remember calling my husband saying HELP, He is not breathing. I remember heading to Jackson via ambulance with a 3.5 hour seizure. WOOO, Hayden was 7 months old. We had experienced a rollercoaster. We started preparing for our future. We started facing reality. Wow, A NIGHTMARE. Little to say, I will never complain about stupid things in life anymore. Instead, I will complain about how to keep my child comfortable and out of pain.

When we came home from the hospital, I placed a goal. I started to beg, plead, and pray to make it to a year. I decided that I would start decorating and planning. I informed Lauren, Holly, Whitney, and Lisa what I wanted to do. I informed them to look in my upstairs bedroom for decorations if they ever needed to bring them to the hospital. I was determined that Hayden would have a YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE birthday party. We would celebrate early if we had too. I was going to plan early so that I could have it all together incase of a tragedy. I prayed so often that we would have a 1st birthday. In April, reality struck again. Hayden had another spell. I became hard headed and determined. I wanted to have the sweetest sunshine party ever. We always sing "You are my sunshine" to Hayden during good and bad times.

I started by shopping on ETSY, pinterest, and facebook. I found Tali from A Party Studio. She helped design it all! She was my angel on Earth! I would highly recommend her! Below is pictures of decorations and the meaning behing each of them.

Hershey Kisses: Hayden receives more kisses than anyone in the world. I sometimes kiss him 50 plus times a day. Hayden is also sweet. We decided to use kisses to represent our love for our angel. We hand glued his name, sunshines, happy birthday etc on the bottom of the kisses. Our SWEET and KISSABLE angel was finally getting to celebrate his SUNSHINE DAY!

 Hayden helped mommy work on the door decoration. Many balloons were pinned to this wreath. I had seen the balloon wreath on Pinterest. Sunflowers remind us of a pretty spring day without seizures. Sunflowers remind us of happiness. Sunflowers remind us of God's Miracle that we are the parents of :)

 ??? Does this confuse you? I had the sweetest Great Aunt and Great Uncle. I know Uncle Lee and Aunt Jerry are watching over Hayden in Heaven. They both past away last spring. Their daughter (my 2nd cousin) drove 14 hours for Hayden's party on her 50th birthday. So we decided to SUPRISE her too!

 Orange, Yellow, and Blue. The main colors of the birthday party. These colors are bright and happy. Happiness was the main key for Hayden's birthday party!

 My grandfather's cousin gave me this frame before Hayden's Gtube surgery. HOPE: Hope is what helped us make it to the 1st birthday. We never stopped believing in our angel. This frame was displayed to show our love and hope for Hayden. The other frame says "MY FIRST HUNT" : Hayden and Marley are sitting with their ducks. This is a dream crushed for our family. We would love to watch Hayden play sports and hunt. As Dana Warrington told me after Hayden's diagnosis "it's okay, we will do it for him" See Hayden still received his first hunt. Brent and I will continue to play, run, talk, hunt, etc for him!

 Hayden is our light. Hayden  is our joy. Hayden is our SUNSHINE. These paintings are done by Hayden's Thumb. He has a special art talent. I love his artwork! We spent countless hours making this perfect.

 Sunshine represents happiness. Happiness occurs when the sun is shining. In the Delta, you see tractors outside on sunny days. We decided to represent our hometown by using tractors in the decorations. The tractors have a sun tying them together. We chose to only drink bright colored drinks and ofcourse water. The water was labeled with suns. Are you getting the picture yet???? The party was bright and happy.

 Hayden's Guest Book: Hayden's guest book was a picture walk of the good and bad days from the past year. Many people cried as they signed the book. He was so healthy and peaceful in the beginning. Towards the end, he was spending so much time in a hospital bed. Man oh Man how time changes.

 The book is now filled with favorite memories from each of the guest. Some people encouraged him to keep fighting and stay strong. Some people told him how awesome he was. My favorite was from Kelli Davis: She discussed the facial expression on Brent's face as he cut the cake to see the color BLUE. We were having a BABY BOY. We were proud of you then. We are even prouder of you now.

 Food: Whats a party without Yummy Food??? We had bright platters, napkins, and silverware. We were so proud of our angel for turning one!

 Hershey Bars and a DUM DUM bouquet for OUR SWEET and KISSABLE ANGEL!

 I am obsessed with photobooks. We had photobooks from the past year displayed for people to look at. The brown one is my mother in laws. She suprised Brent and I with it on his birthday.

 Whats a party without favors? Bubbles for the kids. Hershey Bars for the teenagers. Hope for Hayden bracelets for everyone:) (More to come on this topic later)

 A timeline of Hayden's first year. The yellow flowers are representing happiness, blessings, and faith. I wrote at the bottom a description of each picture for a photo album in the future.
1 Week: Outfit from Emily Lewis
Month 1: Outfit from Robby and Meg at the Beach
Month 2: Photo session by Beth Giachelli at Photo Tech
Month 3: Another photo session by Beth, on the day of our first emergency room visit in Greenville.
Month 4: First Smile in Jackson
Month 5: Halloween as a Puppy
Month 6: Photo Session by Cindy Hensley Self in Lake Village
Month 6.5: Christmas
Month 7: First Wagon ride outside
Month 8: Lolly Wolly Doodle Shamrock outfit pictures at 27 break
Month 9: Nana's Condo in my outfit from Smockaroos
Month 10: Easter Party (day before 3 weeks in the hospital)
Month 11: Beach trip with the Oakes
Month 12: Onesie from Mandy Warbington with a sunshine, tractor, and the number one:) How fitting and perfect?

 I found this frame while shopping in Baytowne. I chose this picture from Florida. Hayden was pain free and peaceful in this picture. Oh what a happy sight!

 Sweets once again for an extra sweet little boy!

 Cheese and grape platter to represents our happiness. Thank you Lord for blessing us with a happy and good 1st birthday.

 Table Decorations: WOW, I bet Hayden was worn out. His precious hands helped me paint the Dollar tree mason jars blue.

 Sunshines and Tractors are such a simple reminder of the Mississippi Delta. The Delta is our HOME. We love the memories in which we have made at home. These items are not found in Jackson. These items are not found near the hospital. These items represent happiness of being healthy and home:)

We had the best birthday ever! Hayden woke up early. He tried so hard to smile. He NEVER cried until bed time. He had the BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER! I hope you are excited to hear the story coming up next about Icing Smiles and The Sweetery teaming up to make the most incredible birthday cake ever!

God answers prayers. The pictures from above would not be displayed on my blog if it was not for answered prayers. Thank you God for allowing us to fight through the bad days to have a 70 degree not a cloud in the sky type of birthday!



I am SOOOO excited about UPDATING my BLOG from HAYDENS BIRTHDAY WEEK! BRENT AND I ARE SO THANKFUL FOR THIS FIRST YEAR. We have SOOO Much to Blog about. I will do it this week. Today, I have a much more important blog to write about. Today I need to ask a favor. I need my friends to start by BELIEVING in MIRACLES. I then need you to PRAY for a MIRACLE. I then need you to ask all of your friends to PRAY, BELIEVE, and HOPE!

In 2004, I was introduced to a guy and a girl at a funeral. Little did I know that they would become my closest friends. Little did I know I would be her Maid of Honor a few years later. Long story short, not only did we become friends with Josh and Lisa but their families. We have barged in on many family occasions. We have spent many days, nights, and vacations with their entire family. We have developed a love for their daughters that is indescribable. We also spent many of nights hanging out with their cousin Little Bryan. He was so much fun to hang out. Bryan eventually got married to Amy. I had never heard of Amy Williams. They had a sweet little boy two years ago. I would speak to her at birthday parties etc. Just a simple hello, how are you? Nothing more.

In December, I saw her at Chloe’s birthday party. She was eager to come speak to me. Yes, I am sure it was difficult because she was pregnant and introducing herself to a mother of a terminally ill child. She had to have COURAGE to come speak to me. God was telling her what the right thing to do was. I hear so often that people just don’t know what the right thing to say is. Luckily, Amy was not one of the ones that looked at me like “I feel sorry for her.” She welcomed me with open arms. She informed me that she was a nurse. She informed me that she would help in any way possible. She gave me her CELL PHONE number. WOW, WE BECAME INSTANT FRIENDS. (I have found out that some of the people that support Brent and I the most are friends we’ve met throughout this difficult journey.) I couldn’t believe how KIND this girl was. How she treated my child like a normal healthy child.  She looked at him in the same way I look at healthy children. Wow that’s such a great feeling. Unfortunately, it’s a stab directly in the heart when people treat us differently. Remember treat everyone as you want to be treated.

Within the next month, we became close friends. She constantly checked on Hayden. I will never forget the day she texted me a message. She said I need your strength. Wait, what? I was so confused. I got off the eliptical and went to the treadmill so I could gather information. She informed me that her doctor was sending them for test. Test of a rare disorder. A terminally ill disorder. I instantly lost it. How can a family that I am close to ENDURE the same pain and heart ache that my family is enduring. I prayed and begged for the test results to be negative. Unfortunately, they were not. Ava Grace Oakes will be born two weeks from tomorrow with Trisomy 18 and Spina Bifida. I feel like I AM suffocating. I DON’T like seeing a family so dear to me enduring heart ache just like my family.

Ava Grace has an awesome family. A family that will support her through the good and bad days. A family that will love her. The problem is she has to FIGHT! FIGHT Angel Baby FIGHT! The doctors are not God. They are only basing her prognosis on research. God is the final decision maker. I AM asking you to spend the next two weeks praying for this entire family. Please pray for Bryan and Amy to have strength. Please pray for Ava Grace to be a beautiful healthy baby girl. A girl that the doctors shake their heads at. An angel that the Doctor’s can’t believe the miracle before their eyes. I beg and pray she doesn’t suffer. I beg and pray she comes out screaming and hollering. I beg and pray that GOD grants Ava Grace a miracle. I AM asking you to pray with me. I AM asking you to beg and plead with me. God answers prayers. God is the final decision maker not Doctors. Please pray the Doctors are wrong. Please pray for the extended family and friends. I AM at AWE that GOD would place a friend in a similar situation. I believe this is an example of God working miracles. God Bless Each of You!

Please remember in the next few months to hold onto each other. Hold onto Faith. Never stop believing. PRAY without ceasing. Keep your HOPE. Keep your LOVE for each other. Lean on the ones that are supporting you. They will be your backbone. And last but not least don’t hesitate to call for anything even if it’s to cry, yell and scream. We are praying without ceasing for a beautiful Earth Angel to be born a miracle two weeks from tomorrow. As for you Amy, I AM so BLESSED to call you a friend. Without, these challenges, I would have never known you. I now consider you a close friend. I wish our circumstances were different, but I do thank God for you! Now as I conclude this blog, please start praying for this precious family!

If you are thinking negative about this blog. If you dont have much Hope for this story, I'd like to ask you to look at this PHOTO. Fight for Ava Grace and Hope for Hayden bracelets. The pink is Ava Grace in Amy's belly and Hayden is in the background. What is Hayden doing? He is smiling:) Hayden has HOPE for Ava Grace and we hope you do too!

Escaping worries and discovering happiness

Well we are finally Mississippi bound:) Hayden has officially been to the beach 9 times in one year. Many people probably think, why do they keep taking him to Florida? Well the reason is he Loves it! I'm not sure if it's the wind or the fact the 12th floor is so high that he feels close to the angels. :) We are firm believers in continuing to live our life to the fullest! We don't want to look back at this precious life and have regrets. Hayden is a memory maker. Florida is our escape from worries. Florida is our 2nd home. Florida has given Hayden many memories and pain free days. My little beach bum loves Florida! We started his birthday week out by a mini trip with his nana, papa, and uncle. Usually, we are sad to leave Florida. This time we are excited! Guess why? We are so close to having a prayer answered. We are so close to being one! I have prayed, pleaded, and begged God for this day. I have cried many tears of questioning if God would answer this prayer. We have had 3 scares where I feared we would not celebrate with Hayden on JUne 1. God is so close to answering our prayer. All I can do is say Thank you God! This whole week has been emotional as we are so happy and sad. We don't know what our future holds. We do know that God answers prayers. Hayden is still with us. He has experienced more in 12 months than many kids do in a lifetime! Hayden is our memory maker, smiles, energy, hope, miracle, and more importantly Our Earth Angel. Thank you God for this unbelievable journey. Thank you for trusting us with your child. Happy birthday Hayden brent! Let's get to party planning:)

Happy Mothers Day

Mothers Day is always a special day. I have always (since K-4) loved making special things for my mom and grandmom for Mothers Day. I get very excited about celebrating special occasions. Last Mother's Day was even better. I received roses from Brent from our Baby to Be. I could not wait to be the mother to a healthy wild active little boy! This Mother's Day was different from them all. I was FINALLY a MOM! I have been so excited about this day until it arrived. Hayden woke up early. He was in a good mood. He made me so HAPPY. We were also going to dedicate him in the church. I was such a nervous wreck full of emotions and saddness. Mother's Day had a new meaning for me. A meaning that was a very sad one. I now know the true meaning of being a MOM. I LOVE BEING A MOM. I LOVE MY CHILD. I can not imagine a Mother's Day without Hayden. I was an emotional nut case as HOPE gained a new meaning. I HOPE, PRAY, and BEG that I will get to celebrate MOTHERS DAY again with Hayden next year. I have gained so many new friends this year. The main thing my new friends and I have in common is ill children. A few of these Mothers have recently lost their children. I quickly thought of them, how empty their hearts must be on this special day? My heart was aching for these Mothers. My husband quickly reminded me that ....Tomorrow is not promised for Hayden. Tomorrow is also not promised for any of us. I finally got off of my pitty party of saddness. I ended up having the BEST MOTHERS DAY. Our child was dedicated under the same roof that Brent and I got married. He was dedicated by the same preacher that married Brent and I. We are so thankful for the small moments in life. We are so thankful for the PERFECT Mothers Day. I LOVE my Ronaldo birthstone and pearl bracelet from Hayden.  I am so happy that God chose me to take care of one of his special angels. I pray that my friends and others that are longing to be a mother get to experience this wonderful journey soon. I pray that more of my friends and family will adopt kids longing for a special home. I love being a MOM and I HOPE you do too!

For those of you who do not know me. I was a first grade teacher. I love ART! I believe in MEMORIES. I helped Hayden make my cards. They turned out perfect! I am so thankful for my cards.

 "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11

The cross is our representation of his baby dedication on Mother's Day. The best gift and a dream come too!

 Hayden had a cake to celebrate dedication. We are so proud of our angel! He was posing with one of the most important ladies in the world. My Mommy! Without mom, I would not have Hayden. I thank God for you Mom!

 Without Nona, we would not have Hayden. We are so thankful for you. Without Meg, we would not have ChiChi. ChiChi is the one that can talk for Hayden. I love to watch his milestones. I wish that Hayden could talk to his Chi. Chi has been saying Lollie and B for months. His new word of the week is Hay Hay. I thank God for our precious nephew.

All we are missing is MawMaw Mrytle. Hayden with his favorites. (Until Fathers Day:))

 Hayden with his yummy cake for baby dedication.

 We enjoyed a weekend full of great memories together. I love this precious angel from heaven.

 Look, who was so Happy to wake up on Mother's Day! He was ready to shower his mommy with LOVE!

I can not wait for Brent to experience Father's Day next month! We will make it extra special just as he made Mother's Day!

11 Months:)

I decided that it was time to update my blog this morning. I figured that I had the right to "brag" for a moment. Well then I realized that I better not "brag" as Hayden had two seizures in the time I was starting my computer up. Let's just put it this way, Hayden turned 11 months on May 1. God has truely blessed us with some great days in May. (Beats April so far). We have finally gained some energy. We are finally back in the swing of things. We were so excited for Hayden's 11 Month Birthday celebration. Many times in our life, we did not feel that we would even see this day. He is our miracle child. We are so close to the one year birthday. I am so anxious, nervous, and proud. I want him to feel good on his day. I hope he is seizure free on his day. I cant wait to make it special for him. Praying that God gets us safely to June 1st.

Month 10 was rough. We spent three weeks in the hospital. Within these three weeks, we were told devastating news. We were heart broken. We felt as if our lives were over again. HMMM, so what should we do now? Go home and cry? Yes, this was my first reaction. Then we decided NAH, we must continue to live life to its fullest. Hayden does not want us to give up! Hayden has lots of things to do in his precious life. So we loaded up and went on vacation. Hayden deserved this! 

We sang Happy Birthday to Hayden on our way to the Beach. He took his two friends with him. They would pamper him all week. He had a great week. It started out very scary though. We continued to pray for better days. Guess what? God gave us better days. We were able to take him to the beach. His Nona gave him a UV tent for the beach. He loved it! He cut his first tooth! Huge accomplishment:) He went to the track and went on a train ride. He went to crab island. He went swimming in the pool. HE WENT 26 HOURS SEIZURE FREE! All in all we had a great week with our perfect little family and friends. Hayden has officially done more in 11 months than some 10 year olds do in a lifetime.


I love this picture of him sleeping. It shows how relaxed the beach makes him. I believe he could be a beach bum. I am sure his mommy and Nana wouldnt mind it.

 Well Hayden has been to Orange Beach 2 times and Destin 6. He loves going to Nanas home away from home. It is perfect for Hayden. He loves to relax. This time he decided to feel the ocean water. He said OOOHH, Mommy that feels good!

 Daddy and Hayden took a dip in the swimming pool. Hayden was so excited for soming daddy/son time.

 Crab Island? I think so! He wanted to go play in the prettiest water in Florida. So that is just what we did! He loved his boat ride! ( Notice his crab outfit for a day at crab island)

 He was so excited to finally have that big life jacket off! He was ready for a nap:)

 Okay, mommy had to change him. Hayden is quickly growing out of his 12 month outfits so we are trying to get a couple of outfits in a day. Yes, he is definitely a fashion King. He even got new sunshades:) ( I have had so many people

 We love these girls like daughters. Hayden loves these girls like sisters! Thankful for their kisses and smiles.

 Beach Bum, I think so! He loved snoozing in his beach tent.
                                    
 Hayden did not feel good in this picture. The only problem with good days is that you can never forget about the bad. I can never stop thinking about the future. It is a terrible feeling. So as I looked at him, I figured he needed a little love. So I drew Hayden a picture on my menu. I LOVE THIS BOY SO MUCH!

 Hayden enjoyed his train ride. He was so excited to be outside in the warm yet breezy weather.

Love and happiness

Well here is another short and sweet update:) We are GREAT! We are BLESSED! Hayden has had 5 GOOD days After 3 weeks in the hospital. God is blessing our family in ways I never imagined. We have almost had a year with HAyden. We can't wait to celebrate! This milestone is huge! The Sweetery in CLeveland called today. They will be doing his dream cake from the icing smiles organization. We can't wait to see his surprise dream cake! We can't wait to celebrate. We are so thrilled! Hayden has a follow up Monday. I will let you all know. Hayden is still seizing. Luckily, they are minimal, short, and soft. Today we had less than 5:) This is a huge accomplishment. We are so thankful for the g tube. He is able to take his meds while sleeping without choking. Even our friends can feed him! It's such an easy task! Please continue to pray for peace, comfort, and good days! Our LOrd is faithful! He is taking good care of our family. Our friends And family are amazing.

A quick scare

Hayden is home after Tuesday's scare. We are so blessed with our angel. He is such a fighter. We found out that the breathing issues came on due to an unresponsive seizure. These unresponsive seizures are so frightening because he looks lifeless. Haydens oxygen was in the 70s when we got to drmc. We were blessed with great people to get us to JAckson. First time to ride in the children's ambulance. They were awesome. We have added a medicine. This makes medicine 8:( he is still seizing. Please continue to pray for peace and zero pain for our angel. I will update more later. Thanks to the visitors, balloons, and snack packs:) they brightened our day. Luckily, I have an angel here at my home. I would much rather spend time with him than blog.